Current Affairs Updates: 4 January 2015

1) Myanmar celebrated its 67th Independence Day: President Pranab Mukherjee has extended India's good wishes to Myanmar on its Independence Day, as he called relations between the two neighbours as enduring in various fields. Myanmar celebrated its Independence Day on 4 January 2015.  

2) Mashrafe Mortaza to lead Bangladesh in World Cup: Veteran speedster Mahsrafe Mortaza will lead a 15-member Bangladesh squad in the ICC World Cup 2015 in Australia and New Zealand. The team’s No 1 ranked cricketer Shakib al Hasan will be Mortaza’s deputy while the squad has rookie batsman Soumya Sarkar and fast bowler Taskin Ahmed. Mortaza was made the captain of the limited overs side, after the selectors removed Mushfiqur Rahim, before the series against Zimbabwe. Although it was a one-off assignment, Bangladesh thrashed Zimbabwe 5—0 and hence the selectors have decided to persist with the 31-year-old veteran of 36 Tests and 144 ODIs.

3) Kumar Sangakkara near Don Bradman's double ton record: Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara scored his 11th Test double century to move one behind Australia legend Don Bradman's all-time record. He made 203 on day two of the second Test against New Zealand to help his side to 356 all out, a lead of 135. Sangakkara will quit one-day international cricket after the World Cup, which starts in February. Don Bradman leads double centurions in Test cricket with 12 double centuries. 

4) Make in India initiative touched 2.1 billion impressions on social media: The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) led Make in India (MII) initiative, has become the largest and fastest growing government initiative ever, on digital leaving behind every other government department like MEA (Ministry of External Affairs), Home Ministry or the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. Make in India, has seen an overwhelming response on its digital platforms since its launch, just 3 months ago. According to the numbers, the Make in India Facebook page adds a new member every 3 seconds a feat that has not been achieved by any other department of the government and a very few in the private sector.

5) Gujarati actor Upendra Trivedi passed away: One of the most renowned Gujarati actors of stage and cinema, Upendra Trivedi, also known as `Abhinay Samrat', passed away in Mumbai after a brief illness at the age of 79. Upendra who is known for his brilliant performance in the Gujarati play `Abhinay Samrat` is the brother of Arvind Trivedi who essayed the role of Ravana in the TV series `Mahabharata`.

6) Centre announced Rs 1,900-cr for e-gov project Panch Deep: Project “Panch Deep” is an e-governance project which will deploy a massive ERP (Enterprise wide Resource Planning) across the country connecting all the ESIC (Employees State Insurance Corporation) and other organisations in the ecosystem. For this the employees will get unique biometric cards. The project will also take care of payments of third party bills. The IT backbone under this project will also develop a huge repository of medical records, making it easier for doctors and patients.

7) Government sets up Task Force to revive domestic mobile manufacturing: Aiming to take the Make in India programme a step further, the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) has formed a Fast Track Task Force to re-establish growth in the country's mobile handset and component manufacturing eco-system. "The task force will be meeting the Department of Electronics and Information Technology secretary (R.S.Sharma) in the first week of January," Pankaj Mohindroo, national president, Indian Cellular Association said. Sharma is also the chairman of the task force.